© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
Bonfire of the vanities
Magazine article by Stuart Purves, 2016
Australian Galleries Director Stuart Purves tells the story of two portraits by John Brack.
Thomas Purves
Biography
Thomas Purves (1909-1969), known as Tam, founded the Australian Galleries in Smith Street, Collingwood, Melbourne with his wife Anne in 1956.
1 portrait in the collection
Portrait of Tam Purves, 1958
John Brack
Portrait, oil on canvas
Purchased 2012
Peter Purves Smith
Biography
Peter Purves Smith (1912–1949), artist, went to Geelong Grammar with his lifelong friend Russell Drysdale.
2 portraits in the collection
Maisie, 1938-1939
Peter Purves Smith
Portrait, gouache on paper
Bequest of Lady Maisie Drysdale 2001
Elegance in exile
Portrait drawings from colonial Australia
Previous exhibition, 2012
Elegance in exile is an exhibition surveying the work of Richard Read senior, Thomas Bock, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and Charles Rodius: four artists who, though exiled to Australia as convicts, created many of the most significant and elegant portraits of the colonial period.
Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and his wife Theresa, c. 1847
an unknown artist, Thomas Wharton
Portrait, daguerreotype in a pinchbeck case
Purchased 2001
The Bushranger Tragedy (from The Australasian Sketcher, 23 November 1878), 1878
an unknown artist, The Australasian Sketcher
Portrait, wood engraving on paper
Purchased 2003
The New Arrivals at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, 1941
Russell Drysdale
Portrait, pen and pencil on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Lady Maisie Drysdale 2001
David M Thomas
Dream Job
Previous exhibition, 2011
Since 1993 Brisbane-based artist David M Thomas has investigated self identity through art works that encompass painting, text, audio, video and performance.
Andy Thomas
'When I grow up I want to be an astronaut'
Portrait story
An interview with Australian astronaut, Dr. Andy Thomas, who describes the experience of space travel.
Thomas Atkinson
Biography
Thomas Lewis Atkinson (1817-c. 1890) is described in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists as 'one of the shining representatives of English engraving'.
1 portrait in the collection
Avril Thomas
Biography
Avril Thomas (b. 1956), artist, was born in Malaysia and went to boarding school in Scotland and Australia.
2 portraits in the collection
Rover Thomas
Biography
Rover Thomas (1926-1998), Kukatja-Wangkajunga artist, was born in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia and worked as a stockman and fencer before losing his employment upon the introduction of equal pay for indigenous workers in 1975.
1 portrait in the collection
Gubbo Thomas
Biography
Guboo Ted Thomas (1909–2002), land rights activist, was a tribal Elder of the Yuin nation and grew up on the Wallaga Lake Reserve near Narooma.
1 portrait in the collection
Andy Thomas AO
Biography
Andy Thomas AO (b. 1951) is an astronaut. Born and educated in Adelaide, an engineer by profession, he managed a number of aeronautical programs and patented several inventions before joining NASA in 1992.
1 portrait in the collection